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A mojo, in the African-American spiritual practice called Hoodoo, is an amulet consisting of a flannel bag containing one or more magical items. It is a "prayer in a bag", or a spell that can be carried with or on the host's body. Alternative American names for the mojo bag include gris-gris bag, hand, mojo hand, toby, nation sack,conjure hand, lucky hand, conjure bag, juju bag, trick bag, tricken bag, root bag, and jomo. The word mojo also refers to magic and charms. Mojo containers are bags, gourds, bottles, shells, and other containers. The making of mojo bags in Hoodoo is a system of African-American occult magic. The creation of mojo bags is an esoteric system that involves sometimes housing spirits inside of bags for either protection, healing, or harm and to consult with spirits. Other times mojo bags are created to manifest results in a person's life such as good-luck, money or love.
Hoodoo is a set of spiritual practices, traditions, and beliefs that were created by enslaved African Americans in the Southern United States from various traditional African spiritualities and elements of indigenous botanical knowledge. Practitioners of Hoodoo are called rootworkers, conjure doctors, conjure man or conjure woman, and root doctors. Regional synonyms for Hoodoo include rootwork and conjure. As a syncretic spiritual system, it also incorporates beliefs from Islam brought over by enslaved West African Muslims, and Spiritualism. Scholars define Hoodoo as a folk religion. It is a syncretic religion between two or more cultural religions, in this case being African indigenous spirituality and Abrahamic religion.
Black magic has traditionally referred to the use of supernatural powers or magic for evil and selfish purposes.
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The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to spirituality:
Paschal Beverly Randolph was an American medical doctor, occultist, spiritualist, trance medium, and writer. He is notable as perhaps the first person to introduce the principles of erotic alchemy to North America, and, according to A. E. Waite, establishing the earliest known Rosicrucian order in the United States.
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The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses is an 18th- or 19th-century magical text allegedly written by Moses, and passed down as hidden books of the Hebrew Bible. Self-described as "the wonderful arts of the old Hebrews, taken from the Mosaic books of the Kabbalah and the Talmud", it is actually a grimoire, or text of magical incantations and seals, that purports to instruct the reader in the spells used to create some of the miracles portrayed in the Bible as well as to grant other forms of good fortune and good health. The work contains reputed Talmudic magic names, words, and ideograms, some written in Hebrew and some with letters from the Latin alphabet. It contains "Seals" or magical drawings accompanied by instructions intended to help the user perform various tasks, from controlling weather or people to contacting the dead or Biblical religious figures.
The Arbatel De Magia Veterum is a Latin grimoire of Renaissance ceremonial magic published in 1575 in Switzerland.
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Benjamin Rucker was an American stage magician, better known by his stage name Black Herman. He was the most prominent African-American magician of his time.
Lewis de Claremont, also spelled Louis de Clermont, was the pseudonym of an American author on occultism who flourished during the 1930s.
L. W. de Laurence was an American author and publisher on occult and spiritual topics. His publications, including his edition of the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses influenced the practise of magic among the African diaspora in the Americas, as well as in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Joseph Bearwalker Wilson (1942–2004) was a shaman and witch. He founded the 1734 Tradition of witchcraft and created Metista spiritual system, which later developed into the Toteg Tribe. He was also a founding member of the Covenant of the Goddess.
The spiritual church movement is an informal name for a group of loosely allied and also independent Spiritualist churches and Spiritualist denominations that have in common that they have been historically based in the African American community.
Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation is a 2009 book by Mitch Horowitz published by Bantam Books. The book is focused on the role that new religious movements play in the history of the United States; Horowitz argues that these movements, often marginalized or ignored by mainstream culture, played a substantial role in shaping American society. Occult America covers a wide range of individuals, movements, and beliefs from the eighteenth through twentieth centuries, with Horowitz paying particular attention to figures such as Manly P. Hall, Henry A. Wallace, and Edgar Cayce, as well as the Spiritualist movement and its element of greatest mainstream popularity, the Ouija board.
References
- ↑ Carolyn Morrow Long. Spiritual Merchants: Religion, Magic, and Commerce. University of Tennessee Press, 2001 ISBN 1-57233-110-0
- ↑ Catherine Yronwode and Mikhail Strabo. The Art of Hoodoo Candle Magic in Rootwork, Conjure, and Spiritual Church Services. Missionary Independent Spiritual Church, 2013 ISBN 978-0983648369
